


Finit hic Deo

by Apollynos



Series: Humanity - Saints and Sinner [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Angst, Dark Spain (Hetalia), Demonic Possession, Exorcisms, M/M, Mild Smut, Post-World War II, Priests, Religious Content, Serious, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-26 12:18:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16681492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apollynos/pseuds/Apollynos
Summary: "You know, the worst devils are the ones who pray." - Germany, 1948 - Father Vargas is sent to a close friend of the Vatican, who suspects that his brother is possessed by a demon. The trained exorcist takes on this case and soon he realize that an exorcism will not be the solution and he gets deeper and deeper into the hunting area of the "devil".





	1. What we believe and what we know

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys x3  
> I'm in a flow to write/translate some of my FanFictions and yeah - Here is another one :)  
> Its a little bit different from everything I wrote - Its a difficult topic I know, but I hope you Guys like it x3
> 
> Have Fun <3

Munich, July 20, 2005 - Excerpt from an old found diary  
   
>>In the meantime, I'm really wondering if the devil exists at all and if I made the right decision when I said I want go the way of the Vatican.  
I started as a student of exorcism, worked up through the training like no other, and I've certainly seen things where others would start doubting if this would ever be true.  
But still, I've never experienced anything like this over the years.  
And I wonder if it really was the devil himself that had its fingers in the game or if all I had ever thought to know was just wishful thinking on my part. Wishful thinking after an explanation that strengthens my beliefs and that might even make these things "harmless".

But after all this, can I say with certainty that supernatural powers exist?  
Who guarantees that what I have seen is true?  
That that what I have experienced is true?  
Who can assure me that?  
Who can give me the faith back?  
God himself?  
But what if no god ever existed?

I know that I question the Lord's existence here, but what can I still believe after this?  
I started to question these things since I saw it.  
I swear to god.  
I saw it, the deep-seated devil in the green eyes of this man.  
And yet, I trusted him. Through his charming smile, the way he talked and interacted with me, he gave me security, aroused confidence and sympathy ...  
Father, please forgive me. I know what I did was a bad sin ... Oh, what am I writing there.  
One sin? There were clearly several sins.<<

From here, the writing is illegible, almost as if something wet had come over it and made the ink run. Maybe the person started to cry?  
   
>>I will now pack my things together and leave this country again, I will confess and submerge my sins, because after everything had happened, what I had done ... The covenant to God had never felt so wrong as now.  
And after all that has happened here, I ask myself if what I'm doing is the right one.  
Basically, I'm not a bit better with the subject I'm practicing, isn’t it?  
He had called me a murderer. Devil in angelic form. A deceitful messenger of God, who tortures and chases away innocent people, accusing them of having a demon in them, charging them a burden to set them against God ...

But one thing I ask myself nevertheless.

If there is no such thing as the devil or demons, why do some people react so extremely to an exorcism?<<  
   
With this question ends the entry of the diary and thus the continuation of the same, the date was the 01.11.1948 and it belonged Father Lovino Vargas, trained exorcist of the Vatican, which was sent to Munich on 05.10.1948 to a case of demonic activity  
What he had experienced there, he had recorded down to the smallest detail in this diary and the deeper you penetrate into the matter, the more you wonder to what extent the evil can go out alone and from when the devil has his fingers in the game.  
Should there be such a thing as the devil at all, maybe we just create the devil ourselves and cover ourselves in the protective cloak of religion to have a scapegoat on which we can deport all this negative?


	2. First Day - Meeting the Carriedo Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back with a new Chapter to this Story x3  
> I choose as human name for grandpa rome this name "Romeo Gilbavares" fromt the hetalia fandom wikia x3  
> And he is the Uncle of the Vargas Brother because of reasons (jk. I found it better this way)
> 
> So yeah - Hope you like that Chapted x3

04.10.1948 - Vatican, Rome in Italy

"And why exactly do you assume that this is a demon obsession?" Romeo asked again, he still has no clue what his good friend want from him.  
"I just got it in my mind, Romeo, can you not just send somebody who looks at it?" The Portuguese begged on the other side of the phone.  
Romeo sighed thoughtfully, massaging the bridge of his nose between his two fingers. Only by speculation to send someone would be too risky, he thought. On the other hand, he also knew that João would not just come up with a wild story like this if there was not really something behind it.  
"Okay, I'll send somebody and he'll look over the situation. I send my nephew Lovino, think of a good story why he'll be with you and your brother," Romeo finally agreed, and he could hear João breathing out in relief. "Thank you, Obrigado! Romeo, you don't know how glad I am!"  
"It's all right," said Romeo, smiling slightly.  
"Thank you," João said happily, when there was a click in the background. "Romeo, I have to hang up, Antonio is coming home, I'm expecting Lovino tomorrow, I'm at home most of the time," the Portuguese explained and then hang up with a "Adeus amigo!".

Romeo shook his head and put back the phone on the phone's fork, before turning around and looking at Lovino. "You overheard, I suppose?"  
"A little, si. What exactly is going on?", The young Italian addressed.  
"Look," Romeo began to explain to Lovino João's request. The younger brother of the Portuguese had gone to war on the German front, through good contacts, so he and João could survive the war years in 'peace' when the Germans had withdrawn Antonio to the Front in France. The Spaniard had made it back home, but he had changed. João didn't care thay much at first, however, when he noticed that Antonio's character was very different from what João actually knew him to be.

"People are changing in the war, that's normal," Lovino interrupted him, looking at his uncle uncomprehendingly. He didn't understand what that had to do with the Vatican and especially with him as an exorcist.  
"They do that Lovino, you recognized that well, but João also said that Antonio had changed a lot in a direction he didn't know of him, he wasn't traumatized or otherwise damaged by the experience of the war," Romeo replied and adding, "João had observed that Antonio completely distanced himself religiously, he refused to pray, hang off the crosses and he also took off his mother's cross necklace."

Lovino's eyebrows raised questioningly, that didn't sound very unusual, he thought to himself. He could understand Antonios Action in this matter.

"I know them both since they were teenagers, Antonio has always been the more religious of the two," Romeo explained "As João point this out, it made me think a little bit more about this."  
"I understand and I should go there and see if its really no bad presence?" Lovino repeat.  
Romeo nodded.  
"Okay, well, I guess I'm driving tomorrow? Is there anything I should care about?"  
"Try to be nice, João currently has a hard time and let Antonio not immediately realize that you are an exorcist," said Romeo smiling.  
"Good, I'm trying to keep it up in my mind." Lovino rose and then left his uncle's room.

He walked down the long corridors of the Vatican to his quarters to pack his bag.  
The job sounded interesting, it was something different than everything he had been commissioned so far.

*  
05.10.1948 - Munich, Germany

Lovino was with each step he came closer to the address, unsure what he really should do here. He had been thinking about it all this long drive and hadn't come up with any logical explanation but a demon? Although Lovino was a trained exorcist and had certainly seen a lot, the description Romeo gave him didn't really sound like a typical demon possession.

And yet he was here, at the door of his new "home". They had agreed the day before that Lovino should spend at least a month here, if nothing demonic happen, he could leave earlier.

The young Italian took a deep breath and rang the doorbell, a little later the door was opened. The man who opened was relatively tall, well-built and sympathetic, he was roughly middle-30 or late-30. His shoulder-length dark hair was loosely tied in a braid, and his green eyes looked attentive and friendly.  
"Olá I'm João Carriedo, you have to be Father Vargas, right?" The Portuguese introduced himself to the Italian.  
Lovino nodded. "Right, that's me, Father Gilbavares sent me."  
João smiled slightly and stepped aside. "Please, come in Father Vargas."  
"Please stay with my firstname - Lovino," he offered and stepped past João in the small house.  
"As you wish," the Portuguese agreed and took the bags from him, took them to the living room.  
"Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to clean up," he said apologetically.  
"That's alright," said Lovino, looking around a bit, the house was a bit chaotic in the order but what he had seen so far, it seemed very comfortable.

"Your brother isn't home yet?" Lovino asked as he sat down on the sofa and took the cup of coffee.  
"No, he won't be at home until a couple of hours," João answered, seating himself on a chair across from him.  
"Very well, then please explain again what made you think your brother is obsessed with something evil," said Lovino, looking intently at João, who sat down more comfortably and put the cup down on the table.  
"Well, where do I start best?" João asked questioningly, more to himself than to Lovino.  
"Tell me how your brother was at the beginning, before he came to the front in France," Lovino said as a leader for the talk.  
João nodded and thought, trying to form sentences in his head, as he was best able to explain to Lovino, especially since his italian was not really the best.

"My brother was actually always very open-minded, he had two best friends with whom he did a lot and also experienced a lot but when the war started their contact had gotten a little bit lost, at least to the Frenchman," João began to tell "Antonio and I, we've always been very close together, even though we used to argue a lot as children, but I guess that's normal among siblings. "  
"It is," Lovino interjected, "I also have a younger brother and we used to argue a lot, but now we get along better."  
"That's nice to hear," said João, smiling warmly, and then continued, "Anyway, we used to get along very well and we were very familiar with each other, but as the situation worsened, Antonio wanted to make sure of my safety You know, one of his best friends was a respected officer of the german army, which has secured him the place in his unit, I don't know what happened then and what he saw, what he experienced, but the fact is, it must have been something that changed him.  
"How changed?" Lovino asked him.  
"He came home and he was no longer himself, he wanted to get off all the crosses in the house and he locked Mom's cross necklace away, I don't know why he did that. He was always more religious like me and this change ... That was not him and when he looked at me, it was so different, it was not he who looked at me through his eyes," João ended his Observation.

Lovino nodded in understanding and arranged his words a little. For him, it was not very strange to change like this but he also felt like that there was more to tell, as João wanted to tell, but he would not push him for now, he had enough time to find it out by himself.

"That sounds like a really big change from your brother," Lovino started to say when they were interrupted. A key was turned in the door lock and unlocked it.  
"Hermano estás ahí?", shouted the newcomer, who closed the door behind him and looked into the living room. A man who looked a bit like João stood in the doorway. He had short dark curls, narrow green eyes and was slightly larger than the Portuguese. He smiled at his brother first, but the smile faltered as his eyes fell on Lovino - which made the Italian feel a little uncomfortable.  
"Toño, you remember Father Gilbavares, this is his nephew, Lovino Vargas, he's with us for a few weeks so he can see something different than just Rome," João explained as he got up and headed for Antonio ,  
"Well, good to know, Hola, I'm Antonio," said the - apparently native - Spaniard.  
"Ciao, I'm glad to meet you," said Lovino, getting up as well, handing Antonio his hand, the other returning the gesture and smiled at the Italian, scrutinizing him.  
"I suppose I'll bring my things to the room you showed me, João," Lovino finally said, walking past the two men, grabbing his bags and leading them up the stairs.

>>It's the 05.10.1948, I'm in the house of the siblings Carriedo and had a conversation with João, who described the situation to me from his point of view before Antonio came home. What I almost noticed right away was the fact that João did not just has respect for his little brother, but he was almost a bit afraid of him. Antonio seems intimidating to me, which is logical for a former soldier who fought at the front but he doesn't look like pure evil. I guess I'll keep a close eye on both. Maybe João's reaction to Antonio will give me a little more insight into Antonio himself.<<

Lovino packed his diary back under his pillow and then stepped out of the room into the hallway. There was a smell of food and the Italian followed the smell down to the kitchen, where he met the brothers who were cooking together. Lovino could not resist a small smile, somehow they reminded him of Feli and himself until he noticed something. On João's neck had formed a dark spot, it may be that this was already there but Lovino was still confused about this. He knew this kind of stain, even though he had been with the Vatican for a long time and had dedicated his life to it, he still knew what one physically could do to show that two people were close. Confused, Lovino's eyebrows drew together, a woman did not live here, so where did the hickey come from?  
Had João a date with a woman before they met? Would he have told Lovino about it? Not really, after all, he was here because of Antonio, what João does in his spartime didn't matter to Lovino.

"You can come in," said Antonio, who noticed Lovino.   
"Oh, Sure. I didn't want to be so rude just standig around here, I'm sorry."  
"Not so formal boy, you can talk to us like with other people too", the Spaniard told him and placed the plates on the table. "Sit down."  
João had turned to Lovino and gave him an encouraging smile, which made the Italian somewhat suspicious. The Portuguese was so much quieter than before. Was it Antonios presence?  
Lovino suspected that it was because of it but he could not find anything disturbing so far but good, he had only been there for a few hours and had not been able to interact with Antonio before.

>>Supplement to the previous entry. I had dinner with Antonio and João, it was quite silent in itself but I noticed something. Antonio had interacted with João more often than with me, not that it would bother me much, the less attention I get, the less worries I have to take away from my "undercover"-existence. However, I noticed something, Antonios glance. His eyes were so honest and loving when he looked at João, but as soon as he looked at me ... the hair on my neck rose up. So cold and empty. A very strange charisma came from him, somehow it was a dangerous atmosphere surrounding him. I still do not quite understand why he reacted so hostile to me or if its because out of something demonic.

I'll keep watching and see what happens tomorrow.<<

Lovino closed the diary and hid it back under his pillow, he lay down and covered himself under the blanket. He reached for the light switch as something caught his eye. João stood in the doorway and smiled at him.  
"Is something else?" Lovino asked him, but João just shook his head, whispering softly, "I'm just glad you're there, Father. Good night."  
"Hermano, are you coming?", they heard Antonio call from the next room and Joao called back, that he would come.  
"Sleep well and don't let anything disturb your sleep. See you tomorrow."

Confused and somewhat suspicious, Lovino looked after him, switched off the light and lay back down.

Somehow, João was the one who behaved a little bit strangely.  
Not Antonio.

But João don't fit into the picture of someone who is possessed by a demon and otherwise... how could a demon carry a cross as necklace without burning the skin beneath it?


	3. Day Two - Conversations and Guesses

Lovino woke up early in the next morning, he turned on his back and rubbed tired over his face. Somehow he didn't want to get up, it was like, he couldn't get up. He never had such a problem with that. Except for now. He sighed and try to slowly sat up, he swung his legs out of the edge of the bed before he stood up and taking his clothes off the chair. He went out and wanted make his way to the bathroom when he heard soft voices from the room of the brothers.

He usually knew he shouldn't secretly listen, but he was here to pursue a potential demon obsession, so he had to overhear the two of them too. Carefully he went to their room and listened closely at the door.

"You know, if you keep doing this, we'll never get up today," he heard João saying. The Portuguese seemed to be laughing softly.  
"I know Hermano ~ But you're so warm," that was Antonio's voice, he sounded rather tired.  
"Hm, I'm always warm for you," João replied amused.  
The Italian heard something rustling, maybe it was the blanket?  
He started back from the door but he couldn't make out any footsteps, so Lovino bow down a little and looked through the keyhole, trying to locate where João and Antonio were. He finally got a view of the two elder Men and frowned his eyebrows in confusion. Antonio leaned over João, his face against his neck, and Lovino couldn't see what exactly he was doing, he just saw João's lips turned into a soft smile and he stroked gently his hand through Antonio's wild curls.

Visually it look somehow normal, Lovino thought to himself and was about to straighten up and go to the bathroom, when he noticed that the Portuguese pushed his brother away from him.  
"You know that we have a visitor," he heard him hissing softly. "And you also know that you are not the quietest person when you start with that!"  
João sounded admonishing as he "scolded" Antonio, Lovino couldn't really figure out the mood in the room or what Antonio made wrong.  
On the other hand, the spaniard sounded anything but enthusiastic about the change of tone and grumbled reproachfully. "Do not worry, I haven't forgotten it, but you also know that you haven't let me in for a long time."  
"I know," was all João had to say before he got up.

Lovino backed away from the door, quietly sneaking into the bathroom so that neither of them suspected anything.

In the bathroom, Lovino locked the door and undressed himself before he stepped under the shower and turning the water on. He thought about the conversation he had overheard and somehow tried to conect the situation logical. He didn't know what Antonio meant by his accusation, and why João had rejected him so harshly.

And here, too, he found no sign of an obsession.  
But maybe the demon in Antonio was to smart? Or João was just imagining something?  
On the other hand, Lovino was not even a day here and he knew that an obsession developed first and didn't immediately show with full broadside.

Sighing, Lovino turned off the water and pulled the shower curtain aside, he grabbed the towel from the sideboard and stepped out of the shower. He dried himself and changed into fresh clothes, unlocking the door and stepping out, noticing the door to the room of the brothers was open. He looked over attentively, but couldn't make out anyone, presumably they had gone down to the kitchen. Lovino wanted to turn around and get something out of his room when he almost ran into Antonio. Startled, he stumbled back and looked up at him.

"Did I scare you? I'm sorry," he said apologetically, eyeing Lovino with his green eyes.  
"Ah, no, its fine. I'm just easily to scared," Lovino said with a wry smile.

Under the scrutiny of Antonio Lovino began to feel uncomfortable, his green eyes were so intense and ... something was in them, Lovino could not make out exactly what it was but there was something.

"You can go down, João has prepared breakfast," said Antonio, smiling. "I'll just take a shower before I'm going to join you." He winked at Lovino and then pushed past him.  
The Italian looked confused after the older man and gently shook his head over it, then he made his way to the kitchen.

"Morning," João greeted him and hand him a cup out. "Coffee?"  
"Si, that would be nice," Lovino replied and sat down at the table, he looked up at the Portuguese and noticed on the collarbone another dark spot, the same as he had on the neck.  
Wondering, Lovino narrowed his eyes, after João was not gone to anyone over the night and Lovino just had seen him and his brother togehter ... Could it be that these hickeys are from Antonio?  
Somehow Lovino could not imagine that, why would he do that to his big brother? That made no sense. Thoughtfully, Lovino sipped his coffee until João broke the silence.

"Lovino, I know Antonio has to leave later, maybe we want to go for a walk and talk a bit? I guess I remembered a few more things," João said with a low voice to him.  
"Si, we can do that, the more clues I get, the more I can focus on it," Lovino agreed, watching João's body language. The Portuguese seemed somehow relieved about it?

*

The afternoon started and Antonio had left the house hours before. Lovino had moved briefly into his room to begin an entry in his diary, where he wrote down the observations of this morning, when it knocked gently against the door frame.  
He looked up and saw João, who smiled at him: "Do we want to go?"  
Lovino nodded and took his book back under the pillow, he followed João down and put on his shoes and jacket. Together, the two men left the house and João showed Lovino the park, which was very close to their house. It was a pleasant cool autumn day, the park was colorful and some children were playing happily in the foliage.

It was hard to believe that until just a few years ago there was an absolute crisis atmosphere due to the world war.

"So João, you said you had remembered something more?" Lovino started the conversation.  
"Yeah, I thought about everything a little bit the last night," he said and then began to explain that Antonio sometimes had "bright moments" in which he is his bright and happy as ever self, but these moments are rare. Just as Lovino had met him, so had Antonio act since his return from France. João also told him that sometimes he had the feeling, that he would talk to two different people.

"How exactly do you mean that 'talking with two different people'?" Lovino asked and looked at him irritated.  
João shrugged his shoulders and said, "Like I said, sometimes he's just the old one and sometimes ... not, it's like a shell being used when he's having his moments where he's the way he used to be, he usually doesn't know or remembered at ... things he said or did. "  
"What kind of things?"  
"Not important."

Lovino lowered his eyes, actually it was important to know everything but good. He would follow the request of his uncle and try to remain nice and understanding, then he would just continue to find it out on his own.

"You know, at first I really thought he had been traumatized by the war, from what he had experienced and all that around, but the longer he was with me, the more confident I became that this couldn't be normal. One day he arbitrarily told me that he could no longer see these crosses and wouldn't be able to wear it around his neck. "

The exorcist was listening. That sounded much more like a posession.  
Demons dislike crosses and this pattern, of the arbitrary departure from the religion symbolism, he had been able to determine it so far in some other cases of his years as exorcist.

"Were there any other things you could observe?" Lovino inquired, maybe he would be able to rhyme something together.

João seemed to think before he began to nod slowly. "Yes, we used the ritual that we went to the church every Sunday and we also prayed before dinner that has also stopped at that day. Antonio responded also quite aggressive when I asked if he wanted to go to the church with me. "

That was much more of an indication, Lovino thought to himself.

"What you describe, though proving far from anything but it goes in a certain behavior pattern of obsession, which I know from other cases," Lovino said, thinking about how he could lure Antonio from the reserve. Just to get a real picture of it. From his reaction and the resulting deeds and words.

"We should go back slowly, it's getting cold," suggested João Lovino, who nodded in response. On the way back, João tried to establish a normal conversation, he asked Lovino a lot about himself and his life in the Vatican.  
The Portuguese really seemed to be interested in Lovino as a person and not just as an exorcist. This flattered the Italian somehow and he went on the conversation, noticed how relaxed and open João suddenly became. Together, they ran back towards the house and arrived, João unlocked the door and let Lovino enter first.

"Hola, you're back," Antonio called joyfully from the living room and stuck his head out, grinning at the two of them.  
"Correct, we're back," João agreed, looking at Lovino with a meaningful glace. The Italian wondered if that is the light phase João had been mentioned.

*

At the dinner table, Lovino had said that he came from a religious household and that prayer was part of the dinner. He watched Antonio closely and could see an undefined flash in his eyes.  
"I somehow feel ... uncomfortable with it," said Antonio pleadingly.  
João said nothing and let Lovino settle this.  
"João told me you always did that before together?" Lovino asked cautiously.  
Entering, Antonio remained silent and lowered his gace. "Can we just stop with that, please? I won't pray."

Lovino had discovered one thing. The way Antonio pronounced his request was vastly different from the previous one, and he understood how João got the guess with the two different people he talk to.

*

Silently, they finished their dinner and Lovino helped João wash the dishes, while Antonio went upstair to their room.  
There was something there, Lovino knew that very well. Antonio's plot was not at all the typical pattern of behavior that he had been able to observe in cases like this.

After washing up, Lovino went up to his room and sat down with his diary on the bed to finish the entry.

>> I seem to understand slowly where João's guess came from. Antonio was indeed weird.  
As we came back from the walk, Antonio looked very different to me. He was cheerful and had that happy glint in his eyes, that charismatically charming smile on his face and he had spoken to me quite differently.  
This morning the conversation between us was cold and distant, almost hostile but earlier? I would almost say he flirted with me. Which is nonsense of course, after all, we were both of the same gender.

...

Anyway, I found it amazing to see how much the atmosphere and body language of him changed when I approached him to pray. At first he looked anxious, almost guilty?  
But then, as I continued to check how far I could go, he seemed so distant from everything. He spoke sharply with his request, with an undertone that would not contradict me, and I could see João flinch uncomfortable with it.<<

Sighing, Lovino had finished his entry, he pushed the book back under his pillow and lay down. He switched off the light and looked at the ceiling, thinking for a long time about everything. But especially about João, who worried him a bit.

Almost more worried as Antonio himself. The spaniard could be for sure the most dangerous but... João. He doesn't know why he worried about him so much.  
He also doesn't know if this was a good or a bad thing.

He only worried... And that was a thing he doesn't do that before. He never worried about one of his "clients" for those cases.


End file.
